[rant]Appetizer Chains[rant]

Sac Arrow

Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Snorting his way across the USA
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The cervezas are flowing. Carolina just showed up with another basket of tortilla chips and a couple more stoneware dishes of that habanero salsa that is soooooo good. Miguel is in the back deep frying the carnitas chimichangas which will be topped with some melted cheese and chilis. By the way that stoneware dish looks suspiciously like an ash tray. I'm not exactly sure what the four half cylindrical indents on the lip are for, in the context of a salsa dish. In fact, I'm pretty sure it is an ashtray. I saw the same ones sitting on the tables outside in the smoking section. Whatever, as long as they don't all go in the same dishwasher. Then again the salsa does have an odd aftertaste reminiscent of Kool filtered's.

Stop, just stop. These chips are addictive, but don't fill up on chips. Never fill up on chips. Wait for dinner, and if you're still hungry, then by all means have more chips. Plus, the salsa, that is going to go GREAT on the chimis.

Fast forward. I don't think today, in California, you can even find restaurants with smoking areas anymore. Maybe you can. It's been a long time since I've seen one. But, an odd trend has been popping up all over the place. There is a chain, called Wing Stop, which sells, predictably, wings. And onion rings and some other kinds of appetizers too. But that's it. Just appetizers. No "Food" with a capital F, just appetizers. They have one a block away from the house. Now they are putting another one in next to the gym, which is two blocks from the house. Two specialty oddball appetizer chains a block away from each other, and the only fast food within a five mile radius is a single McDonald's.

Here's the thing. I'm not anti-appetizer. I just generally don't eat them, as I prefer to hold out for the "real" food. Steaks. Ribs. Hamburgers. I mean don't get me wrong, you throw some ribs out there as an appetizer, I'll be all over those bad boys. And it's not like I don't like wings. Sure, I'll chow down on those. And yeah, if I'm having a few drinks at the bar, a plate of shared appetizers is welcome. Don't get me wrong. I'm not going Hitlarian on appetizers.

I simply don't understand the whole concept of having a place (which I believe is strictly an order and pick up venue, I can't imagine they have inside seating but I don't know, I've never been in one) that only, solely, serves appetizers. I don't get it. I mean obviously it's a successful venue and enough people patronize the chain that they are expanding, but, I still don't get it.

Let's say I'm hosting, say a Superbowl party. There will be appetizers yes. But there's also going to be pizza, beer, burgers, ribs, tri-tip, whatever, but it's going to be real food. I'll pick up the appetizers when I get the meat and the pizza and the sides. I'm not going to make a separate stop at a wing place to get wings. I can get them at Costco and nuke them or warm them up or whatever. Conversely, let's say I'm picking up something for lunch. Or dinner. And I want to eat light. The last thing I want is appetizers. I want real food. Maybe just one or two burgers.

One night of drinking with the business associates really irked me. Well it irked a couple of us. The plan was to have drinks and order some dinner. We went to some upscale yuppy dance club which had drinks and a menu, but it turned out they didn't actually do dinner service, just appetizers. They just kept ordering plates of appetizers. No thank you, I'm holding out for dinner. More appetizers. No dinner. I'm starved. We're stuffed. Bye, see you guys tomorrow. Yeah. Don and I headed over to the seafood place and stuffed ourselves with shrimp, grilled salmon and oysters. And more scotch. And damn straight it went on the expense report.

What's the fascination with these wing joints? I'm not dissing them or the people that use them, I just don't get it. They seem to be a place that can only partially fulfill a mission, and not even the main one.
 
Never thought about the whole "all they sell is appetizers" thing, but Wing Stop is about the bottom of the list if I'm actually looking for chicken wings to eat. Not particularly good.
 
I don't know many people who hate BWW, and their bread-n-butter is boneless wings. Sure, they have other stuff, but it's not what they're known for.
 
Around here it's wings and Chinese food combination restaurants. We have two within a 1/2 mile of each other and a Mexican place that has great Sesame Chicken, much better than the Chinese/wing place! Strange world we live in!
 
I've always considered wings to be perfectly acceptable to eat as a main course, but regardless I've never been a huge fan of the chain wing joints. Pluckers in Austin is pretty good, I suppose.
 
Just get a big frucking pile of them damn things, and quit your bitchin'...
 
vontresc said:
Just get a big frucking pile of them damn things, and quit your bitchin'...
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Back when I was a starving student, there was this Mexican bar and grill not too far away that had free wings at happy hour. The kicker though was that they were very, very, hot. Like burning a hole in the stomach hot. We would sit around nursing a beer, load up on hot wings, and pay the consequences for the next two days.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Back when I was a starving student, there was this Mexican bar and grill not too far away that had free wings at happy hour. The kicker though was that they were very, very, hot. Like burning a hole in the stomach hot. We would sit around nursing a beer, load up on hot wings, and pay the consequences for the next two days.
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So good (hot) it'll burn ya twice...
 
SoonerAviator said:
I don't know many people who hate BWW, and their bread-n-butter is boneless wings. Sure, they have other stuff, but it's not what they're known for.
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Boneless wings are just chicken nuggets with hot sauce. Complete with all the chicken butts, and parts you probably don't want to know that you're eating, at most places that serve them. A few use only breast meat, but that's not a wing.

They are brilliant for figuring out that Americans are too prissy to eat a regular wing though. I'll give them that.

I've fallen into the boneless wing lazy trap before, but it's usually when I'm starving and want to shovel them into my face faster. They're never better than the real deal.

We had a really good local place that specialized in wings, but the town is too small to keep a place like that going. Their wings were *smoked* before they were dunked in hot sauce. Very very tasty indeed.

The corner gas station and convenience store out here in the boondocks makes a better standard buffalo wing than BWW, seriously.

Mostly because the store owner doesn't buy scrawny wings, but buys nice big ones that actually have some meat on them. They make BWW look cheap, and he charges less for them.

He can't. Everyone out here could just buy wings and make their own at home, and he knows it, so he's got a product worth stopping in for.

Now if we really want talk tasty goodies from a chicken, we have to talk about fried gizzards. Mmmmm. Yummy.
 
Probably confirmation that the restaurant biz is brutally competitive, margins in booze are greater than the margins for food, and the margins in high vol, standardized finger food like wings (and donuts? ;) ) are better than even fast food entrees.
 
Around here, the small plate deal (or appetizers only) is because you can't get a liquor license for a bar. You only can get one for a restaurant. They have to have some kind of prepared food (nuts, chips, and pretzels won't cut it) to get a license.
 
I'm kinda hooked on Applebees wonton tacos. And I'm not normally an appetizer person.
 
flyingron said:
Around here, the small plate deal (or appetizers only) is because you can't get a liquor license for a bar. You only can get one for a restaurant. They have to have some kind of prepared food (nuts, chips, and pretzels won't cut it) to get a license.
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That's the case in New York, as well. The standard "bar license" requires that food also be served. The state suggests soups and sandwiches as examples.

The quality of the food served varies from so bad that no one would ever order it, to quite decent. Bars that really can't be bothered with food serve a slice of cheese between stale white bread and call it a sandwich, just to comply with the law. Other bars serve food that's so good that even people who don't drink sometimes go there for the food. But one way or the other, they all have to serve some sort of food that will pass SLA muster.

Rich
 
flyingron said:
Around here, the small plate deal (or appetizers only) is because you can't get a liquor license for a bar. You only can get one for a restaurant. They have to have some kind of prepared food (nuts, chips, and pretzels won't cut it) to get a license.
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RJM62 said:
That's the case in New York, as well. The standard "bar license" requires that food also be served. The state suggests soups and sandwiches as examples.

The quality of the food served varies from so bad that no one would ever order it, to quite decent. Bars that really can't be bothered with food serve a slice of cheese between stale white bread and call it a sandwich, just to comply with the law. Other bars serve food that's so good that even people who don't drink sometimes go there for the food. But one way or the other, they all have to serve some sort of food that will pass SLA muster.

Rich
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Just out of curiosity, what are these stupid laws supposed to accomplish? Trying to make sure drunks are not malnourished or something?

(Getting a liquor license here is pretty much an exercise in whipping out a checkbook unless the location is not zoned correctly. Then it's a signature raising campaign, and most folks will sign anything that says there will be booze closer to their houses.)
 
NY has all sorts of laws I don't understand like the number of music performers you can be licensed for as well. I suspect it's steeped in bureaucracy over the years as more of a competition limiter than anything else.

Here in Virignia, it's just that there are no places that are allowed to just serve alcohol. We don't have bars. You want to have a restaurant and serve alcohol that's fine. I suspect we might still have some dry counties in the state. There used to be more arcane laws about not being able to carry a drink for table to table but by and large those are gone. I remember there used to be a big white stripe on the floor at a walk-up "restaurant" in the old National airport north terminal that you dared not carry a drink across.

We still have some funny rules. If you watch a bartender long enough in a Virginia bar you'll see them finish a liquor bottle and then immediately start scraping at it. It's required that empties immediately have their tax stamp defaced. I think that's to prevent them from being refilled with untaxed liquor. I've never seen that done in bars in other states.

I liked Wisconsin where you can buy hard liquor in the Walmart. But you can't buy even a beer after 9PM.
 
denverpilot said:
Just out of curiosity, what are these stupid laws supposed to accomplish? Trying to make sure drunks are not malnourished or something?

(Getting a liquor license here is pretty much an exercise in whipping out a checkbook unless the location is not zoned correctly. Then it's a signature raising campaign, and most folks will sign anything that says there will be booze closer to their houses.)
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I really have no idea what purpose the food requirement serves. But it's been true for as long as I can remember.

We also have laws regulating the total number of days and hours per week that liquor stores can be open; what liquor stores can sell besides wine and liquor (corkscrews and some mixers are okay, but beer is not); during what hours grocery stores can sell beer or wine products; how old cashiers and baggers must be to ring up or handle beer or wine products (18, although the minimum drinking age is 21); how much alcohol can be in a "wine product" before it becomes "wine" and can no longer be sold in grocery stores and gas stations; what kind of bag can be used to carry beer, wine, or liquor out of a store (it must be opaque); and how far away a licensee who holds an off-premises liquor license can live from their store.

Another peculiar law allows bars to sell beer for off-premises consumption, but not liquor or wine. That's another one I could never figure out.

For a long time, the state even regulated how many cans or bottles of beer could be in a case. Cases of 24 cans could only be sold by distributors (who used to be able to sell only cases or kegs, not individual cans or bottles). That rule was what popularized the cases of 18 and 30 cans that supermarkets and grocery stores usually sell: They were to get around the 24-can restriction. (I think the 24-can rule may have been repealed, however, because I've recently seen 24-can cases being sold in grocery stores and gas stations.)

I don't know why all these laws are necessary. I suspect most of them have to do with divvying up the alcohol business among different kinds of stores, and others are remnants of Puritanism. Personally, I wouldn't mind abolishing the SLA and repealing the laws altogether.

Rich
 
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Yeah, Oklahoma has some pretty "fun" liquor laws which are in the process of being altered via legislation as we speak. Liquor stores not able to be open on Sundays, but you can buy 3.2ABW beer at any convenience store/Wally World. No sales of refrigerated alcohol except the 3.2pct beer and at restaurants. We can't hardly get a lot of the craft beer companies to bother with shipping product here because of all of the hassles they'd have to go through.
 
I survived the blazin wing challenge at BWW.
It was horrible but I got a free shirt.
 
Caribbean Jerk is good.
I like the blazin sauce but the challenge was a bad idea.
The heat was one thing but just try and eat 12 wings w/ any sauce in 6 min.
Very salty too. ugh
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I survived the blazin wing challenge at BWW.
It was horrible but I got a free shirt.
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Old Blazin' was kinda weak sauce. The new stuff is ghost pepper based, and reasonably hot ;-) Nowhere close to the insano wings at QSL though.
 
I was in a wine shop in Tennesee. They could only sell wine, no beer, and no corkscrews. I guess they were afraid if you could buy a corkscrew there you'd get drunk on you way to the car (no rule on screwcaps). Next door was a beer store. They could sell corkscrews (the wine store clerk directed us over there).

The real reason is that when prohibition was repealed, the compromise was pretty much to delegate liquor law to the local jurisdictions which result in a bunch of inconsistent, anti-competitive, obsolete, cronyistic, and often corrupt laws. It's amazing how cheap politicians go in this state. Aggressive anti-competitive interests in the distribution lobby can by politicians for four figures in the state legislature.
 
When I first went into the Air Force, because we weren't yet 21 we couldn't go to the NCO Club and drink regular beer. We had an Airmans Club and had to drink 3.2 beer, something like that. Like we couldn't get wasted because of it's lower alcohol content. Well we'll just drink more of it then! And we did. Good times.
 
Sounds like Colorado. Under 21 you could drink 3.2 beer. We even had special (civilian) 3.2 clubs that catered to the 18-21 crowd.
Besides, there's not much difference between 3.2 Coors and the "full strength" stuff.
 
flyingron said:
Sounds like Colorado. Under 21 you could drink 3.2 beer. We even had special (civilian) 3.2 clubs that catered to the 18-21 crowd.
Besides, there's not much difference between 3.2 Coors and the "full strength" stuff.
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Agreed, because usually one is measured as ABW and another is ABV. They end up being closer in overall alcohol content than most people believe.
 
I don't remember any age restrictions in the Coast Guard or Navy clubs other than being tall (and sober) enough to reach the bar while standing. They even had beer machines in the barracks on shore stations. The Burger King, the bowling alley, and I think the movie theater on GOVIS also served beer, and I think the bowling alley also served liquor. They also had a "package store" on base that sold the hard stuff at great prices to anyone with a valid military ID.

Then again, the civilian drinking age was 18 back then, so I guess no one really cared about 17-year-olds who were in the service enjoying a drink. I drank in civilian bars using my military ID while I was still 17. Either they didn't bother to read the date of birth, or they figured that anyone old enough to serve their country was old enough to drink.

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
I don't remember any age restrictions in the Coast Guard or Navy clubs other than being tall (and sober) enough to reach the bar while standing. They even had beer machines in the barracks on shore stations. The Burger King, the bowling alley, and I think the movie theater on GOVIS also served beer, and I think the bowling alley also served liquor. They also had a "package store" on base that sold the hard stuff at great prices to anyone with a valid military ID.

Then again, the civilian drinking age was 18 back then, so I guess no one really cared about 17-year-olds who were in the service enjoying a drink. I drank in civilian bars using my military ID while I was still 17. Either they didn't bother to read the date of birth, or they figured that anyone old enough to serve their country was old enough to drink.

Rich
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Hmm, as an interesting exercise I Googled Georgia's history of minimum drinking age, and it would have been 21 when I went through Benning. There were probably two, maybe three times when we got to have an evening liberty at the Exchange store to drink beer during Basic and OIT, and no 'cruit was ever refused a drink.
 
The base exchange on Ton Son Nhut had booze and beer, and our ration cards allowed 4 bottles and 6 cases per month. Harry and I used up our full rations every month and then borrowed the cards from our non-imbibing buddies.

No one gave a crap about how old we were.


img126a.jpg
 
flyingron said:
Sounds like Colorado. Under 21 you could drink 3.2 beer. We even had special (civilian) 3.2 clubs that catered to the 18-21 crowd.
Besides, there's not much difference between 3.2 Coors and the "full strength" stuff.
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They killed that here a long time ago.

Nowadays we're being accosted by Kroger and Safeway employees masquerading as citizens asking for signatures in the grocery store entrances to all the grocery stores to sell "full strength beer". They're gathering signatures to put it on the ballot as a referendum vote. The small and large liquor stores, are of course, against it all, but seem to have either been squelched or have gone relatively quiet about it. The grocers are pushing all sorts of money into the ads on radio and TV about it.

This in a State where it's still (stupidly) illegal to buy a car from a dealership on a Sunday.
 
They were fighting that battle back in 1982 when I was living there. The "Citizens for Convenient Shopping" had a radio commercial where the mother is dealing with her whiny kids and lamenting she had to go to the liquor store to get wine to go with dinner. Someone countered with the "Citizens for Fun Shopping" that pointed out that it was inconvenient when buying Vodka at the liquor store to have to go to the grocery to get some food to go with it.

At this point I was sharing a house with my CFI and his brother and sister owned the liquor store at the end of our street. Of course, they were fighting the effort tooth and nail. We used to stopped in there (88th and Wadsworth) and get a six pack to drink on the way to the bar in Boulder (no sense wasting that transit time not drinking. Of course on the way back, my roomie often was found driving with his IFR hood on. He said it helped him concentrate on the lines.
 
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